Vahe Achikian

The “Arachnort” Yepiscopos is Der Bartoghimeos or Der Bartoghime of F?rnus and he shepherded his Armenian Apostolic Christian parishioners at Surp Garapet church of F?rnus ,and this photo is from 1895 during the Grand Rebellion of Zeytun of 1895-1896 in which he participated and fought valiantly during the siege and capture of the Ottoman Q?shla or Barracks perched high above Zeytun.

The Archimandrite of Firnus’s name was Der Barthogimeos Taqadjian, born 1851 in Firnus, participated in the 1895-1896 Grand Uprising of Zeytun, escaped to Cairo, Egypt until 1908, then returned to Zeytun in 1909 and stayed until 1915. He was among the heroic Armenians who were deported forcibly to Aleppo in June 1915, but together with 1500 Zeytun and Firnus Armenians, he returned to Zeytun in Dec 1919. As due to his advanced age, he had to surrender along with 570 other Zeytuntsi Armenians to the Kemalist turks and was imprisoned in Marash for a while until the whole group of Armenians were forcibly deported again towards Malatya and onto Diyarbekir in July 1921. The valiant cleric and leader of Firnus Armenians,Der Barthogimeos, was suspected to have not survived that forced march and was presumed martyred in 1921…